Welcome to the world of Radio Control Helicopters !

[Fluffy-ZN]

So who is flying his weekend. 

[Steve Smith]

hey ,i am there like a bear..  vibration and all

[Fluffy-ZN]

Saturday the 16th of Feb 08 - Had excellent fly at BR's and was back for sunset flying. Heli went well and no wind whole day not even a fart. Heeee Heeeee.

So Steve what you mean by "vibration" , are you talkng about your heli?


Fluffy-Zn

[Steve Smith]

Hi

yeah, i have a huge vibration on take off and then it goes away,,, very strange

[Fluffy-ZN]

Steve you probably already know this but this site really helps with everything to do with helicopters.


http://www.raptortechnique.com/



Fluffy-ZN

[Burger]

Hi, I am from Mosselbay and would like to know if there is somebody in the area that fly helicopters or in particular Sceadu's, currently working in Singapore and will be home in mid September and would like to continue flying there. It seems to be a bit of a problem to get Hirobo's spares in the western Cape area or if anybody knew of any hobby stores , forward the links. Still just hoovering but getting there.

[marcdd]

Check out www.4dproducts.co.za based in Somerset West WC - we can get you most/all parts for the full Hirobo range of helicopters. Supplier to our door in 2 days.

Marc

[Burger]

Thanks Marc, check the site and is impressed, not too far away and hope to meet some of you guy's in the future. Or when you come down to the cape for holidays drop in and bring your heli with

                 

[destrooier]

Hi guys, I VERY VERY new to this... don't have a helicopter yet new.
Now that is where my question comes in...

1.  What do I need to start this hobby?
2.  Where can I get the goods that I need at good prices and from people that won't rip me off? (I stay in JHB)
3.  Are there any places where pilots in JHB gather to fly... if so, when does this happen and where?
4.  How deep should my pocket be to get an entry level fuel helicopter?

If someone or even everyone could answer this, it would be nice

Thanx.

[Burger]

Destrooier, like me I am also new to the game, first of all get a good simulator, subscibe to heli forums (Runryder.com an helifreak.com) have some very vital and valuable information and would help a lot and lastly read all you can about various brandnames and then decide what to buy

My 2 cents worth

[Steve Smith]

Hi Destrooier and welcome to the sport

Burger is 100% correct, if you get your heli without a sim, you will crash and it will ruin everything for you.  Take the sim and spend around 30 hours before you even try.

Try Aerial Concepts in Kelvin (011 802 8500) I started buying from them 8 years ago and never looked back.  They will help you make the right choice and offer free lessons if you guy from them. 

There are many fields around Jhb.  NERF www.nerf.co.za , RMAC, www.rmac.co.za or check our the body that looks after flyers (you even get insured against crashing into somebody.  http://www.samaa.co.za:89/

I think the best start is a little counter rotating helicopter, you are looking at around R 1300 with the Sim and will not make you cry when you crash it.  If you think you will stick it out, make sure you get a decent Radio that will grow with you, this is an investment for life.

good luck.

[destrooier]

LOL, i bought a cheap 2 channel heli just to see if i like it... LOVED IT!!!! was fun flying it... the landing didn't go too well
It kinda came down a bit faster than I planed for and i broke the tail off the heli
But i fixed it with super glue and used a candle to melt the plastic so it bonds better.  Then I took a toothpick and broke it in 2 and spalked the tail on the top and bottom using masking tape.
Took it out for a fly today... good as new

Gonna go and get me a nice electric heli tomorrow, will also get the software to practice on

Thanx for the advice

[DSR]

Hi there and welcome form my side as well
Hope you love the sport like we do.
You can talk to Sam at Aerial Concepts we fly competitions together
he would be able to give you good advice 

PS: just keep it in mind that electric is not not bad at all but not the
cheapest to start with in the 50 size and up.

Good luk

[Claude]

Hi fellow flyers (in my case wannabe flyer). I am a professional spectator, my son being the flyer. Any tips on how to insulate/setup the antenna wire on a T Rex 450? We get some interference, had total loss of power on Saturday, fortunately no damage.

[spacey]

[quote]Hi fellow flyers (in my case wannabe flyer). I am a professional spectator, my son being the flyer. Any tips on how to insulate/setup the antenna wire on a T Rex 450? We get some interference, had total loss of power on Saturday, fortunately no damage. [/quote]

I'm gonna need a little more info in order to really help but ok let's see.

Firstly is the reciever a PPM or PCM reciever? I wouldn't recommend anything but a PCM reciever on the little T-rex 450, either that or Sektrum/2.4gig stuff. The little Rex has alot of noise and static going on on it, trouble no doubt.

Secondly, never ever snip the antenna on these things. If you really want to shorten it get a proper Deans base loaded antenna and connect as per the specs. Also never ever roll the antenna up or anything of the sort.

On my T-rex before I put in a AR6100 Spektrum reciever I had the PCM reciever on the top little slanted bed. I had the antenna wire take the shortest route possible, without ever being under strain so it could damage from vibrations or anything, to the antenna tube which you install default in the skids (Install a snipped off control horn stopper here to prevent it pulling into the tube). From that I had it going through the little hole in the bottom of the vertical fin on the tail rotor (Put a small piece of heatshrink sleeve over the piece of antenna that passes through the hole so vibrations don't destroy it. From the vertical fin then back to the other side of the skids and a little rubber band connecting it to the skid so it can't be broken or anything. You don't want any piece of wire hanging loose on the heli at all either, this setup avoided that.

Next thing you want to sort of try to seperate the drive train components from the radio equipment as much as possible. Keep the ESC and it's wires on one side of the heli and the rest of the radio equipment on the other side of the heli as much as possible.

Use a ferrite bead on the ESC lead that goes to the throttle on the reciever, especially if you're using the BEC on the ESC which I'm sure you are.

Next thing is to obviously look into static electricity on the helicopter, do a little research on good you'll find alot of info about the T-rex 450 especially creating alot of static on its tail drive, there's some good and easy fixes though.